Words of Thai

Last week in Bangkok, I broke my SD card reader, a fragile bit of technology I had been using to upload photos from my digital camera online. This afternoon I looked up the local photo shop and ventured off to find a replacement.

The photo shop wasn’t anything like you’d see back home. It was just mainly an empty room with some older equipment and a computer that looked like it was the late 1990s. A technology gap from life back home where upgrades to the latest technology are essential. I used my few words of broken Thai along with some body language to ask if the shop keeper had an SD card reader. The shopkeeper’s husband came out and we struck up a simple conversation about my travels in Thailand thus far.

After a while, the shopkeeper managed to find something that worked. I purchased this older bit of technology and did my best to thank the shopkeeper in my limited Thai. The shopkeeper and her husband remarked how there are foreigners living Chiang Rai who have been here for years but still don’t pick up the local language. They seemed particularly grateful for the linguistic effort on my part, although I could just utter a few basic words and phrases.

I don’t know if the SD card reader I purchased will work. But the trip was special because it was another connection among so many where the graciousness of the Thai people gives me reason to appreciate this country so much.